Looking Around for You
by Kaneshige Kotoshi
Summary: Six years after graduation, Tachibana Himeko is now 24, all grown up and in the work force, by chance when she brought her sister to school, she meets Hirasawa Yui again. Old memories resurface and old feelings arise. Will the two get to resolve them? May include slight occ.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I'm back, this time with a Yui-Himeko fic. Disclaimer on my profile. Hope you enjoy this short little multi fic :3

"Hinata-chan, are you ready for your first of school?" I asked the little girl in front of me.

"Mhm, I'm ready onee-chan" she answered me with a smile.

"Did you eat breakfast yet?" I asked since I knew she hadn't.

"Ehehe, Onee-chan caught me." She smiled as I set a bowl of cereal on the table for her.

Today is Hinata's first day of school, and I can't believe that at the age of 24 I am bringing my sister to her first day of kindergarten. I sighed as I remembered when my parents called me half way through my first year of college telling me that I was no longer an only child.

-Four years ago-

I sat at my desk lightly taping the wood while reading a text book. The T.V on quietly in the background as Akane and Eri were watching some sort of variety show. I highlighted away on my book ignoring the laughter coming from the general direction of the T.V when Akane suddenly spoke.

"What's that sound? Wait is that?"

Akane muted the T.V.

The chorus of one of HTT's songs "Watashi no Koi ga Hotchkiss" can be heard from down the hall.

"Sorry that's mine" I say as I run to my room to get my phone.

"Eh even though we've graduated for two years you're still thinking of them, Himeko?"

"mm " I ignore Eri's comment and pick up the phone instead. The sound of my mother's voice comes over loud and clear.

"Himeko? Your father and I have some great news for you! You're going to have a little sister soon!"

"EH?!" I shout into the phone. I don't quite remember that but apparently my raised voice brought out the curiosity in my roomies.

-Current time-

"Onee-chan, I'm done" Hinata's voice shakes me from my memories. I smile as I clean off the table while Hinata puts on her coat.

"Don't forget your mittens and hat" I tell her from the kitchen.

It turns out that we arrived a bit early and ended up being the first ones to show up. One of the teachers led Hinata to her class room while I stay behind to ask a couple questions. Before I leave, I drop by Hinata's class room to see how she was doing and to say good bye.

When I peek into the class I see her talking to a brown haired woman happily. I smile and wave at her intending to leave. But she got up and ran over to me instead.

"Onee-chan, are you going to leave now?" She asks me with a sad face.

"I need to go to work Hinata, be good here, I'm sure Hirasawa-sensei will take care of you, and you'll meet lots of new children here. It's just like pre-school but for big girls. Are you a big girl?" I ask her

"I'm a big girl" She says to me happily.

As I stand up, something else hits me and I almost fall over.

"Hime-chan!" I hear.

"Eh? Hime-chan? It couldn't be..."

"Hime-chan is all grown up now, she even has a daughter now" I hear her say

"Yui? … Hirasawa Yui? You're the one teaching Hinata?" I ask

"Ehehe, don't worry Hinata-chan will be in good care, I've taught kindergarten before you know?" She says as if she already knew what I was thinking.

"It-… T-that.. I-t- it's not like I was thinking anything like that or anything" I stutter.

"I don't mind, Azunyan told me it was impossible you know?" Yui pretended to mope.

"Ah, how is Azusa-san and the rest of HTT, you all went to JWU together right?" I ask cautiously.

"Eh, Azunyan is good. Mio-chan and Ricchan both got jobs working at Mugi-chan's family company in marketing and Mugi chan is a store manager at one of the store branches." She responds to me casually.

"How does the daughter of a large company end up at a lower position than her friends" I wondered especially since Tsumugi-san is very intelligent and hard working.

"Oh, Mugi-chan told her parents she wanted to work from bottom up so she started working part time during university and is slowly working her way up. Her parents were just happy she was willing to take over so they let her do that." Yui answered again as if she knew where my thoughts where.

"I see, so what about you, Yui?" I ask cautiously, part of me wants to know what she's done.

"Me? I'm now teaching your daughter Hime-chan" Yui says with a smile on her face.

"Ah-… wait. Daughter? Yui that's completely wrong! We have the same last name you know? We're sisters!" I almost scream.

"Eh, sisters? I was wondering about why you had the same last name." She gives me her innocent smile once again.

"Mm.. Never mind, maybe we can talk later. I've got to get to work now and it looks like other students are starting to show up." I say pointing to the door. As Yui greeted new students, it ended up being Hinata's turn to talk.

"Onee-chan, you know Hirasawa sensei?" She asked with a surprised look on her face.

"We can talk about that later, or you can ask sensei after school okay? I really need to go now, so behave okay?" I give her a kiss and leave the school.

My life has once again become hectic as my parents have decided to go off traveling again, leaving Hinata in my care. Perhaps with Yui taking care of her during school, I won't have to worry as much. I smile at the thought of Yui getting along with Hinata. My work as a model made taking care of Hinata difficult when my parents were always out and about. However it seemed I got lucky and most people were understanding of the situation so I could always get off work on time, or bring Hinata with me to shoots. Either that or like Yui they managed to mistake her for my daughter. I can't really blame them though, the age difference is definitely closer to daughter than sisters. After work I head towards Hinata's school to pick her up.

My mind flashed back to my high school years. Time spent that will never come back. I remembered hearing of Houkago Tea Time back in first year and wondering what type of band they would be. It consisted of an elegant lady, a very shy girl, an energetic girl and an air head. I didn't know music at the time, but I thought the music they played together was very nice.

I remember during the summer of my first year I had hurt my arm and had considered quitting softball. I remember I said I wanted to join the light music club when Akane and Eri stopped me, telling me that playing softball was where I belonged. I smiled as the image of four giant animals running around the school yard came back to me. No one ever figured out who they were, but I got the distinct feeling they were probably the light music club.

Houkago Tea Time was treated like they were stars at our school, and I was but a fan. I had nothing to do with them other than my love for their music. And then third year came around. I was in class 3-2, the exact class all the HTT members were in. I never imagined that the person I would get to know most in that class was the last person I wanted to meet in HTT. Hirasawa Yui sat beside me that entire year.

At first her strange antics would catch my attention, and her soft snoring would distract me from studying during quiet study time. I remember to my dismay she grew attached to me really quickly. Eri said it was because I would just go along with what she said. What started off as me seeing her as nothing but an annoyance changed quickly. That year, I experienced new things I didn't know, I felt emotions that I couldn't describe and didn't want to give a name to. Perhaps I knew what my feelings were, but perhaps I just didn't think they would work.

Yui was nice to everyone, she could get attached to anyone, I was nothing more than the girl who sat beside her. Surely those feelings I had at that time were nothing more than glorified memories of days that had passed. My eyes that followed her every action in class were nothing but a product of admiration and my racing heart a result of my idolizing. She was always that thought in the back of my mind that I was always thinking of but not focusing on, just like a fan was when they could feel close to a star.

After work, I packed up my things quickly and left to pick up Hinata, hoping I would make it on time. "This job is totally not suitable to take care of children" I mutter to myself.

Originally I went to college for nursing along with Eri who entered a business program Akane who were in the fashion arts program. Somewhere during my second year I also ended up switching into fashion arts when I participated in a themed fashion show and caught a scout's eye. I might be a model but my life style wasn't all that out of the ordinary, I wasn't anything big and most people don't recognize me from magazines or anything. I still live with my family, though perhaps getting my own place would be more fitting of my age.

"Oi, Himeko" A voice could be heard, shaking me from my thoughts. I turn and look in the direction of the voice. I see Akane just behind me.

"What's wrong? You seem liked you were thinking about something, or perhaps bored." She said.

"Eh, do I?"I ask

"Yeah, come to think of it, it's been a long time since I've seen you do that" She answered.

"Do what?" I asked, confused as to what she was talking about.

"You were just standing here, looking off into the distance, you looked kind of bored and your arms were crossed" She said as she imitated me.

Do I really cross my arms that much? I asked myself as I tried to think of times that I had crossed my arms out of habit.

"Like I said, it's been a long time. You used to do it all the time during our last year of high school and first year of college. What are you doing here anyway? Picking up Hinata?" asked the Raven haired girl.

"Yeah, you'll never guess who her teacher is" I say as with a smirk.

"Huh? Is it Sawako sensei?" She asked, confused.

I stare at her confused as Yamanaka Sawako sensei was our high school teacher.

"Oh, Then it's one of our classmates that became a teacher then… Maybe it's Yui? Wait I don't think that's possible" she trailed off.

Before I can actually answer here, a figure had already come hugging me.

"Hime-chan, you came again." Said the figure. I look around to see Hinata still walking towards me.

"Is it really okay for a teacher to be like this?" I ask, though from the looks of it, none of the parents or students were really paying attention to us.

"I see, it really is Yui-san." Akane says with a smile. "Well I have to go now, I'll see you two around" she says as she starts walking away.

"Ne, ne, Himeko-chan let's hang out today" Said the air headed kindergarten teacher as she continued to hug me.

I sigh, this girl acts more childish than my four year old little sister. Although I suppose that is probably best since that is the Yui I knew most. After all these years, it almost felt like she never changed. I still had to take care of Hinata so I declined her invitation, but as she showed me that teary-eyed sad face of hers I ended up inviting her back to my house instead.

A/N: Onee-chan basically means older sister. Satou Akane and Taki Eri were also in the same class as Yui Himeko. I don't know if they were actually close friends not, but there are scenes where the three of them are together and their character intros were written on the same card. Although it's written that Akane doesn't talk much, I could see her as the type of person that would talk a lot more in front of her own friends. Also sorry for any inaccuracies as I'm not too familiar with the Japanese early education system… or the American education system for that matter.

A thanks to my beta, Fujimoto-Chiaki-789 and Evalein for their proofreading and suggestions on this chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

Yui insisted on helping me cook despite how I was pretty insistent that she not help me for more reasons than I should have had. Eventually she settled on playing with Hinata while I cooked. Since the kitchen was open, I would lean over the counter and just watch them. I wonder if her sister saw something similar to this every day back when we were in high school. I smile as I continue watch them. The two of them sat in the living room, building blocks.

"Ah Himeko-chan I think something's burning" Yui says casually.

"Huh? Oh that's bad!" I think to myself as I hurriedly flipped the hamburgers, "Only a slight burn.." I remarked. I finished making the rest of the dinner without checking on them to make sure I didn't burn anything else. There was something about Yui, I'm not sure what it is, but my mind seems to start wandering when I'm around her. Maybe it was because it was always so interesting to watch her, or maybe there were other reasons, but for now I'd rather not think about them. I'm just happy that I got to meet her again.

"We're home!" I hear in the background. I guess my parents decided to come home and surprise us again.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming back today? I didn't cook anything for you" I asked.

"That's okay Himeko, we just wanted to come back to see Hinata since she had her first day at kindergarten today" My mom responds.

"Oh, a friend of yours?"

I wasn't sure to introduce her as Hinata's kindergarten teacher or an old classmate so the introduction between Yui and my parents ended on a rather awkward note with me introducing her as an old classmate. After we finished dinner, I decided to walk Yui home since it turns out she didn't live to far from me.

Almost perfectly timed, my phone rang as soon as we reached Yui's house.

"Ah, Hime-chan's ring tone was one of our songs" Yui says rather cheerfully. She looked as if she wanted to say something but shook her head and smiled. "Thanks for walking me home. I'll see you tomorrow Hime-chan" she says as she skipped inside.

I answer the phone as Eri's voice comes blaring through the ear piece.

"What's up Hime-chan?" I mentally groan at the name, she had picked up that nickname from Yui.

"Just walking home" I replied as I started walking home

"What's a model like you out and about so late at night?"

"Nothing really, I just felt like taking a walk." I answered, ignoring her question. I'd rather not tell her about Yui in case she got any odd ideas out of it.

"Really now? Just walking? Not walking a certain someone home?" She asked.

"Why do you know this?" I ask her. I got a very, very good feeling she was behind me

"Eh I just caught wind of it." She responds in an almost teasing voice.

"A wind?" I ask as my left eyebrow raised.

"A wind coming from behind you" she replies copying my slightly amused tone

"So a fart?" I ask her with a deadpanned voice. Even though I was just joking around, I still felt my face turn start to heat up.

A moment of silence was heard as I heard a slight laugh in the background. "It's really not like you to crack such jokes, but I guess it is refreshing once in a while"

"so-" I never finished my sentence because I felt Eri's hand on my shoulder.

"I don't think you would be able to finish that sentence without inventing a new shade of red" she said as she laughed at me. "What did I want to ask about again… Oh right, how was Hinata's first day?"

-Next morning-

I wake up to the sound of my alarm clock going off, since my parents are home it means that I don't need to be up this early. I reset my alarm clock and lay back down intending to sleep, however, it seemed my brain had something else in mind and would rather stay awake instead. I thought back to the dreams I had last night.

I dreamed of things that had happened in the past. I remembered that I sat alone on the playground, there were a lot of kids around me, but no one talked to me. I could see them laughing and talking, but the second I would try to talk, they would look at me and then walk away. I remember trying really hard not to cry, and eventually just sitting by myself and just day dreaming. Until a girl with light brown hair walked up to me, she took me by the hand and said "Everyone is too scared to play with Himeko-chan because she's too princess like, but I'll play with you" she said. She would do something and suddenly it would be funny to me, the dream me laughed at almost anything the dream girl did. At the end of our sixth year in elementary I saw myself cry as the girl patted my head. "Don't cry Hime-chan we'll see each other again. I promise!" she said to me, she cheered me up till I stopped crying and then she disappeared before my eyes. After that I couldn't remember what else happened.

Then a second dream happened and this time we were back in our final year of high school, the two of us were on cleaning duty that day. Yui was cleaning the board while I was sweeping the floor. I was nearly done when Yui called up to me. As I looked at the board I realized that she had written a message on the board by only cleaning out the areas for the words so there were outlines. The message said "I like Himeko-chan" I smile and respond to her by telling her I liked her too. After that Yui hurried up to clean everything as well when I told her I would be late for work. As we said our goodbyes before I went to work and she to her club, she hugged me from behind.

"Himeko-chan really is like a princess (hime) after all." She whispered.

My face started burning. I didn't know how to respond to it, but the first thing that came to mind was: If I was a princess, would I have met you? Instead of saying my thoughts, I sighed.

"There you go again with the princess joke Yui, you never get tired of it do you?" I ask her with a smile.

"Nope" she says without letting me go.

"I'll be late you know" I tell her. I remember the dream me wishing that the 'like' we used were the same kinds of 'like'.

Maybe it was a good thing that I bumped into Yui after all, it was the first time in a long time that I had remembered any of my dreams. "Yesterday she even managed to make the day a little brighter" I thought to myself. I give up trying to sleep and end up getting out of bed instead, getting ready to bring Hinata to school.

In the afternoon, mom went to pick up Hinata instead. However when she got home, she called me down and I knew I heard Yui's voice.

"Himeko, why didn't you tell me that Hirasawa sensei was Hinata's teacher instead of just saying she was a friend?" She asked me.

Yui and I explained to my mom that we were indeed classmates back in high school for a long time before she believed us. Afterwards, Yui decided to dig around in my room. Thus we ended up in my room, her wondering all over my room while I was sat down and just watched her.

"Hime-chan were you happy when you saw me?" she asked me innocently.

"Of course I was, why wouldn't I be?" I ask.

"Hime-chan always looked really bored or lonely when we were in high school, and yesterday when I saw you again, you had that same expression." She stated.

"A lot of people say that I do that. Do I really seem that uninterested?" I wonder.

"You did, but you know sometimes you would smile too when you looked out the window, and you would smile if I did something odd." She stated it as if it was some sort of fact.

"Apparently so." I mutter as I look around my room for things to do.

Yui spent a large chunk of time looking through my old photo-shoot pictures, childhood albums and various other things in my room. The brunette seemed to be able to always find something amusing about anything she saw.

"Ah, Hime-chan there's me in the background!" Yui exclaimed loudly while pointing to a picture.

I look at the picture, I was five in the picture and indeed in the background had a brown haired girl that looked like the girl in my dream. I didn't remember her name.

"Wait, Yui, you were that girl?" I exclaimed loudly.

The girl she pointed to, was the girl I saw in my dream, the girl that walked up to me when everyone else was ignoring me and the girl that would cheer me up when I sat alone.

"Ah, do you remember how we met then?" she asked.

"Uh… We met during our third year right? During our final year at Sakuragaoka" I answered her.

"Mmm, I guess.." I hear her say quietly to herself. She smiles for a little bit. "Yeah, we did meet during our third year huh? It feels like it was a really long time ago" she said with a small laugh.

I looked over her face, I wasn't sure what it was or why, but I feel like I upset her with that answer. Did I meet Yui back in elementary school? I don't really remember much of elementary school, just that others didn't like to play with me. I knew that there were two girls that used to play with me, but I no longer remembered their faces or names. Only in middle school did I meet Eri and Akane, where I decided I would try to forget everything that happened in elementary school.

My mind wanders off again to my childhood. Judging from what Yui had said, could that dream I had not been so much of a dream as it was a long forgotten memory? I wonder to myself. Could Yui and Nodoka have been the two girls? Either way I don't suppose it matters too much.

I watched as Yui continued looking at pictures. She had a gentle smile on her face; a smile that made my day brighter back in high school. Her eyes still shinned and were as innocent as it used to be; and her ability to pay attention when it counts was also amazing. Even after so much time I still am so fascinated by her.

"Hm, what are you doing Hime-chan?"

I looked around. I was half way bent over the table and only a couple inches from her face.

"I-Uh- I .. I was just stretching was all, d-d-don't worry about me ahaha" I stutter. After a bit I saw the time, it was getting late. "It's getting late, I'll walk you home again?" I suggest to the brunette.

A/N Eri is written down as an energetic and cheerful girl, it kinda makes me think of Ritsu since she seems like she would be the mood setter between Akane, Himeko and her. Making her a tease sounded interesting to me. Also if anyone is interesting in beta-ing for this story and any future ones I may write, drop me a PM and I would be honored to work with you!

A thanks to Fujimoto-Chiaki 789 for proofreading.


	3. Chapter 3

"Darn, just what is going on through my head?" I wondered to myself as I walked Yui home. Then I noticed that it was quiet. I looked over and Yui also seemed to be lost in thought. We walked alongside each other without speaking for a few minutes before I decided it would be best to break the ice.

"Hey Yui, is something bothering you?" I asked.

"Huh? Ehehe Nope!" she responded with a smile.

I looked at her skeptically.

"Well… Hime-chan, what's love?" she asked me with the same tone that I would expect from my four year old sister. It completely caught me off guard and my brain started spinning as I tried to come up with an explanation.

"Well.. Love is when a ma-…" I stopped talking for a bit. I was about to say a man and a woman, but is that not incorrect? We were always told as kids that love was a relationship between a man and a woman… but that's not true is it?

"ma?" Yui's voice brought me back to reality.

"I forgot the word haha" I laugh it off. "Anyway there are lots of different types of love Yui, but love is when you really, really care for someone and they mean a lot to you" There I managed to come up with some sort of definition.

"Ah, Ui said something familiar to me too!" Yui exclaimed.

_What?_ I guess knowing Yui, something like that should be a surprise to me, I definitely respect her little sister for taking care of her so well.

"Well, what about if your heart speeds up or slows down?" She asked me another question.

"Well when your heart speeds up it's because you've been running around and—"Yui actually cut me off.

"I mean around someone" she quickly clarified.

"If your heart speeds up, it means that person is very, very important you. If it feels like your heart is slowing down, it means that you feel like time is slowing down" I answered her questions hoping that she wouldn't ask anymore.

"Why would I feel like time is slowing down though?" she asked me in the same tone.

"Well don't you want the time you spend around someone you care about to be longer?" I asked her. I wonder if I'm better equipped to be a teacher than a model…. I thought to myself. 'Nah' I think to myself… Maybe it wouldn't be so bad… My thoughts were interrupted by Yui once again.

"But what if my heart keeps slowing down till it stopped beating, will I die?!" she suddenly exclaimed with tears in her eyes, as if she was genuinely scared she might die.

I could only laugh at her comment. Yui stopped walking for a bit. I was about to turn to ask her why she stopped when I saw two figures slightly off in the distance, Ui-san and Azusa-san were holding hands and talking in front of the house, it looked like they had been there for a while. Perhaps Azusa-san was accompanying Ui-san earlier and the two ended up deep in conversation after they reached the Hirasawa house. We watched as Azusa-san looked to the left and right of where they stood; coincidently just missing where we were standing. Before standing on her tip toes to give Ui-san a kiss, after which they walked entered the house; most likely because it was getting late.

"Ah, could it be that they are in that kind of relationship?" I say out loud, I assumed she stopped walking so she didn't interrupt the two, but Yui didn't move. Her face stayed in a neutral expression and didn't move. It was several minutes before I saw tears slowly form and drop from her eyes. I didn't say anything but I lead her to the nearby park instead.

"What's wrong Yui?" I asked her. I don't care if she said "it was nothing" because by this point, I knew she would be lying.

"I- I- I don't know." She responded through her soft sobs.

"Could it be that the two of them doing such things was a surprise?" I asked her. Perhaps she was upset that neither of them shared something so important to her? I thought to myself.

"They told me they were going out with each other a long time ago. I just… When I saw the two of them, they seemed so perfect and happy, and then I don't know what I'm feeling right now, but it feels like something hurts Himeko-chan" Yui responded quietly.

I didn't understand her tone of voice.

"I always got the feeling that Azunyan and Ui always snuck around even after telling me about them going out because they didn't want me to see them together" she said through her tears.

I didn't say anything to her as I wrapped my hands around her in a hug and kept her there while she cried until she calmed down.

"Ah!" I heard Yui say before she pushed me away, "Hime-chan, Hime-chan! I felt like my heart started slowing down. Does this mean I'm dying Hime-chan?!" she grabbed me into a hug and started crying again, "I don't want to die!"

I stared blankly at her and then sighed. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I should take some of the things she says seriously or not. Though if I had to guess, perhaps she had realized that she had loved Azusa-san or perhaps she felt that Azusa-san was taking away Ui-san by going out with her. Either way though, it wasn't like I could just send her off home like that.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her quietly while she continued to hug me.

"Okay.." she said with her face buried in my arms.

"Do you want to tell me why you were crying?" I question her.

"I don't know." She responded. "I'm happy that Azunyan and Ui are happy.." she began and then stopped again.

"Do you love Azusa-san?" I asked her, knowing that was most likely what she was scared of saying.

"Am I a bad person for loving my sisters' girl friend?" she whimpered.

"Do you plan on breaking them apart?" I asked her, knowing full well that Yui would never do such a thing.

"No, Never, I would never do something like that!" she screamed at me.

'Ahh' I thought to myself as I stared at her with mild surprise from her sudden screaming. 'Even Yui is capable of getting really angry and really upset.' I thought to myself.

"Exactly, you can't help who you love right? Maybe you loved Azusa-san before she and your sister got together, or maybe you loved her after they got together. Yui, it's not your fault that you love her, and you also have no ill intensions right? I asked her, only to receive silence for an answer. "I would bet you hid this from every one right? And I'm sure you must have tried really hard to forget about Azusa-san. You didn't ask for any of this right? So I'm sure that things will be okay" I explained to her, offering up whatever reasoning and comfort I could think of; even if the reasoning itself probably contradicted and was ridiculous sounding.

"Ah, is that why I've been having these sad feelings around them recently?" She stated as if a light bulb just lit above her head.

If this were an anime I could almost be certain there would be a sweat drop or six on my head right now. I wished that if I stayed long enough she might drop the question, but knowing Yui, she would probably come back with a harder question instead. I sigh before answering her.

"That's probably why, yes. Do you want to stay over today? Tomorrow is Sunday so you can afford to stay over tonight" I offered.

After much effort to get the energetic teacher to sleep, I quietly grabbed her cell phone and left my room. It was already late at night so I crept outside before I called her sister.

"Onee-chan, where have you been? I've been worried!" The voice of her sister came across.

"Ui-san? Sorry this is Tachibana Himeko, I was a classmate of hers from high school. Yui is currently asleep at my house right now so I was just calling to let you know" I informed her.

"Ah, Onee-chan fell asleep at your house? I'm so sorry for the trouble she must have caused, if you want I can be on my way to collect her right now" Her voice was full of concern.

I guess that's to be expected of the genius younger sister that's probably taken care of Yui her whole life. I smile before I answered her. "Ah, don't worry about that, I invited her to stay the night but it was a last minute thing so I figured she probably didn't get a chance to tell you before she fell asleep" I continued. Ui really was as polite and responsible as the rumors said she was. After a bit of chatting our conversation ended and I quietly crept upstairs to replace Yui's cellphone before I fell asleep.

I dreamt of a lot of random things again, but the most memorable thing to remember were more dreams of Yui. I dreamt that she and I had gone out in high school. That instead of joining the volleyball club, I had joined the light music club. The two of us fell in love during our time at the light music club. There were a lot of other things that happened in the dream, like us eating together or teasing each other, or us flirting with each other among other things that may or may not be PG.

I felt something against my cheek. Actually I felt a lot of things against me and I wasn't quite sure what woke me up.

"hmm Hime-chan" I heard

Ah right, Yui slept over last night. I wondered if she's doing better today, or would she also be just as sad as yesterday. It was kind of hard to imagine the normally cheerful and energetic girl to be deadbeat and unmotivated. Sometimes I wonder if she only pretended to be airheaded because she could, she seemed to know what to do at the most important times and always came through when it really counted.

I felt Yui tighten her hold on my left arm as she snuggled up to me, her forehead hitting my neck. She continued to snore peacefully. Meanwhile I found myself turn to a shade of red that would make a tomato jealous. I felt her soft breath on my neck every time she exhaled. I turned my head to look at her sleeping face. Such a beautiful, sleeping face. Her brown hair spread out onto the pillow and my arms; her eyes closed but exhibited a soft happy expression; her lips a beautiful shade of red, they were opened just a tiny bit, as if inviting me. I wanted to lean in closer, and closer to see her face, and to see her lips.

"Hime-chan" she said my name again.

My face heated up once again, as I kept repeating her voice again, the sound of her voice and the warmth of her breath so close to my ear caused a wave of nervousness and comfort to wash through my body. I smile slightly as I quietly take my arm back, only to turn on my side and wrap my arms around Yui in an embrace before I fell back asleep.

A/N An angsty Yui is really hard to write, but I'm sure Yui is capable of displaying and understanding it, just perhaps I'm not good enough to pull it off, so I wrote it off as a clueless shot in the dark. Hope it wasn't too ooc for anyone Also, bear with me, those that love Yui-Azu, I love the pairing too but this story clearly wasn't set for it, so we will let Ui have Azusa. Also if anyone reading is interested in beta-ing for this story or any future stories, please drop me a message. I would love to work with you.

Also Uni-life has started and as a freshman, I will keep trying to keep this updated at least once a week. If I don't, please understand that life happens and I won't just leave it unfinished.


	4. Chapter 4

-beep, beep, beep, beep-

"Just give me two more hours Ui" I heard Yui's voice.

"Two hours?" I laugh, I wonder if she really says that to Ui on a regular basis. That is such an unreasonable amount of time to ask. I think to myself as I unwrap my arms from around Yui to lean over and turn off the alarm clock.

"Fine… Five more minutes? Pleaseee" I hear her say again in a sleepy voice.

Yui was so cute, especially in her half asleep state. It reminded me of the time that she was asleep in class and we had tried everything to wake her up. Like telling her to wake up, for her to tell us it was Sunday on a Wednesday.

"Don't worry it really is Sunday today, just go back to sleep" I say to her as I wrap my arms around her again.

A second or two later, I felt her suddenly shift a lot closer to me. "Hime-chan is warm" she whispered before I heard her snore again.

A couple hours later, I was awoken by something poking me. It turns out that Yui had woken up and instead of just slipping away like a normal person, she had decided a better way to spend her time would be to poke my face until I woke up. I didn't feel like waking up so I just snuggled up to her instead and mumbled gibberish. It didn't work in making her stop so we ended up getting out of bed instead.

"Hime-chan, I'm bored" said the brown haired girl laying on my floor. She had already ready almost all of the manga in my room. Not really all that surprising since I hadn't bought any new manga since my college years. I looked up from my book and watch her roll around for a little bit.

"Hime-chan, I want ice cream" she says randomly.

I sigh, we don't have any ice cream so I invite her to go out for ice cream instead before bringing her home.

"Eh, I don't want to go home" she says as soon as I imply that she should be leaving soon.

"And why don't you want to go home?" I ask her, knowing full well that she probably was still upset about Azusa-san and Ui-san. "I suppose it's okay if she stays over one more day…" I think to myself. I shake my head after a second realization, "You've got work tomorrow" I say.

"Eh, but I dun wanna go to work, can't I stay here bothering Himeko-chan all day instead" she whines.

"You know, I have work too." I say with a sigh, "Well let's go get ice cream" I say, ignoring her.

"Nope." She says.

"If we don't go now, we won't be able to go later since you'd end up full for dinner" I say.

"Nope, I don't want to go now" she responds.

I sigh, she really is like a grade schooler.

"Fine, you can't stay over again because you have to work tomorrow but next Sunday, I'll go out with you somewhere. How does that sound? So for now, let's go out for ice cream now, so you can still eat dinner later okay?" I say to her.

The girl was up and dressed faster than I could count after that.

As we walked to the store, I stole glances at Yui's face. She had a smile on her face as she walked forward. It wasn't a super cold day today, so I didn't mind that we were going out for ice cream in April.

"Ne, Hime-chan, what are you going to get?" She suddenly asked me.

"Mm, I'll get green tea ice cream, what about you?" I respond to her.

"Hm, I don't know. There's so many choices, ya know?" She says, "Maybe I should have chocolate, or maybe milk flavoured ice cream... but green tea or vanilla is also good." She continued talking while we walked.

"We're almost there Yui, pick something." I say.

She clung to me, "I don't know" she stops for a while, "Hime-chan should pick for me" she smiles at me.

I sigh. She reminds me of Hinata again..

"One green tea and one chocolate cone please" I order.

"So, where will Hime-chan bring me next Sunday?" she asks me

"Huh?" I respond with a blank face.

"You promised me you would bring me somewhere next Sunday!" Yui pouted.

"Oh, right" I respond, I had forgotten about that. "hmm, how about …. The zoo? Do you like going to the zoo Yui?" I ask

"The zoo sounds nice." She says happily.

"Hm?" Yui, you have some around your mouth" I point at a spot of ice cream to the left of her mouth.

I see her tongue dart out and try to lick the ice cream off, after missing it a few times she aims for the other side of her mouth.

"Hime-chann~ I can't find it!" she pouts.

So cute, so adorably cute. I think to myself before I wipe it off her face with a napkin.

"Eh" she says, "Hime is supposed to eat it afterwards" she says to me.

I feel my cheeks burning. My eyes dart away from her. "I wanted to" I think to myself.

"I'm not doing that, besides who would eat ice cream off a napkin" I say to her instead.

After that, nothing much of importance happened. I walked Yui home, her sister was of course a little upset that she hadn't be notified prior to Yui staying over and such. Later I walk home and end up talking to Akane while writing in my little diary, most people say to write in a journal once a day, but since that feels like a lot of work I end up doing it once a week.

The sound of laughter could be heard from the phone.

"You know, I feel like ever since Yui-san entered your life again, you've gone back to how you used to be Himeko." She says to me.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Well, I mean things like staring off into space or going out with other people" she replies.

"Didn't I still meet up with you and Eri?" I mutter.

"Yeah, of course, but I mean asides from the two of us, have you ever made an attempt to meet up with others to be social, outside of work I mean. Also I don't think you ever dated either right?" She continues.

She's right though, I've been asked out lots and come to think of it, I think a lot of people used to ask me to hang out and meet up with them in the first year or two after we graduated. I figured people probably got sick of me but if I really think back to it, I canceled every time didn't I?

"Ah, could it be?" She says suddenly.

"be?" I ask, curious of what she was implying.

"Are you still in love with Yui-san?" she finishes.

"L-l-love?! Wait... STILL?!" I ask her, very surprised.

"Well, I mean all you used to talk about was Yui-san, and I even after we graduated from high school, occasionally you went to see HTT perform didn't you? Even though their university was so far away. I think there was also the one time you let me read your journal. It was all about Yui-san, so I figured that maybe you liked her… More than I friend I mean." Akane explains her reasoning to me.

I stop to think before I respond to her. Some parts of what she said were vaguely familiar to me and it scared me a little bit. Was this possibly the reason why things have felt so different in the four or five days she's re-entered my life? Was this why sometimes I had odd thoughts about doing things to her—I mean things like taking care of her… Or maybe kissing her… or… My thoughts trail off for a bit.

"Himeko? Sorry Himeko, was I wrong? I didn't mean to offend you or anything!" I heard Akane through the phone, for once the raven haired girl seemed to have lost her composure as she frantically apologized to me.

"I don't know, I've never thought about it. Maybe I'll relook through my old journals or something. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the first one to notice something like this was you" I say to her in a joking tone.

"mm, to be honest, Eri noticed first." She responded in an awkward tone.

"Either way you two have both known me too long" I reply, ignoring the odd tone in her voice.

After our phone call ended, I ended up looking through my old journals, the ones from high school. The first two years really didn't include anything of importance. Occasionally I wrote about how the band looked really fun. The four of them, later five of them were really good when they played with each other.

Then I found the parts that belonged to my third year of high school. I read about the first week of school. Yui had already started to fall asleep in class by the third day and I remember writing a lot about how angry I was that she slept in class. In total I think I wrote almost four pages of why I wanted to sit elsewhere. I laugh a little bit, I think if I had told myself at this time that it won't even take a month before you grow attached to her; I think my old self would've laughed at me.

The next entry I write about talked solely about the things that Yui did. Like how she really loved her guitar; how she slept around the same time in class and how Nodoka knew Yui so well that she didn't even have to turn around to figure a way to wake her up. I smile as I remember the one day where Tsumugi-san had been kind enough to do all of Yui's duties for her since she wouldn't wake up. I smile as we tried everything we could to wake her up. Nodoka tried gently talking to her, I tried to nudge at her, and I believe Ricchan poked at her face before grabbing a text book and dropping it loudly onto Nodoka's desk. The loud noise flew over Yui's head as well as the scream that was heard after it. I remember turning around to find Mio-san crouching down with her hands over her head. Once the shock wore off though… Well let's just say that it's a good thing Ricchan carries bandages with her everywhere.

"Yui really loves her guitar, she even protected it from the rain" I read to myself. "Oh! I remember this one too!" I think to myself. That would be the day that Yui got soaked in the rain because she tried to protect her guitar from the rain. I remember Sawako sensei was really angry that she came to class wearing a maid uniform haha. Ricchan later told me it was because sensei was the one who made it.

I continue skimming through the journal and then pause. I didn't remember this but it almost seemed too familiar. Yui and I were on duty that day, so we were the only ones in the class room. At the time Yui had volunteered to wash the board while I swept around the room, after what seemed like a couple minutes, I heard Yui call my name. As I turn around I hear her say "Look what I wrote!"

I read the board and it says "I love Hime-chan." I smile. "Yui, we need to clean up so we don't end up late for our clubs okay? So hurry up and wash that board so we can finish up and leave" I tell her. Yui obliges and finishes up wiping the board clean. By the time she is carrying the bucket of dirty water out to drain, I'm already sweeping by the door. Somehow she manages to trip over the broom and in what I could only describe as anime physics, the bucket of water flies up into the air and lands upside down on her head, covering us both in water.

We quickly mop up the water and head to the washroom to clean up. After we were done cleaning up ourselves we walked back to the classroom where I had finally noticed her hair was dripping wet. Sitting her down I grab my towel and start drying her hair.

"It's so handy that you had a towel on hand" she comments as I begin drying her hair.

"It's because there's practice today" I respond.

After a couple moments, I realize exactly how bad that could sound and reword my sentence.

"D-d-don't worry, it's clean, asides from when I dried my hair earlier!" I stutter.

"It still smells of Hime-chan. I like the way Hime-chan smells" she says as if there was nothing odd about the statement.

I blush. My face feels like it gets hotter as I continue to dry her hair.

I put the journal down. I know exactly why that scene was familiar to me now. I guess the dream I had a couple days back was probably based off this memory. I laugh a little bit to myself. I guess Akane was right after all. All I talked and thought about was Yui. I guess it would explain a lot of the things I did at the time, and probably a lot of the things that are happening to me now. It's not a bad feeling though and I'm more than happy to embrace and accept this.

My thought pattern comes to a stop. I'm cheering up Yui because she had her heart broken. This means that although I may like her, she doesn't like me.

I get up, put the book away and lay down. I don't want to think right now. I just want the week to pass and to go onto the date with Yui. It's okay if she doesn't like me, nothing has changed since back then. Nothing has changed…

A/N: Well there is chapter four for you. What do you think so far? Two of the scenes used in here were canon: Mugi taking over for Yui while she slept and no one could wake her up as well as Yui coming to school soaked and wearing a maid dress to class. The first scene is found at the beginning of K-on! Season 2 episode 1 and the second is found in Season 2 episode 6.


End file.
